It seems like local auto shops are becoming more and more difficult to find. Just like you find in every other industry, large conglomerates seem to be taking over. It’s becoming even more difficult to find a little mom-and-pop shop that can service everything you need while still providing you with a very competitive rate. It’s almost unfortunate that these large conglomerates get such discounts on balk purchases because smaller businesses really can’t keep up with that kind of stuff. Personally though, I believe there are a couple of ways that small shops like local auto shops can keep themselves relevant.

One such way is specialization. Large conglomerates generally do not focus on anyone topic because they wish to encompasses much money generating area as possible. When money stops meaning quite as much to you however, you can focus down on particular topics and provide better service than those who generalize. Let’s take the automotive industry for example. Large conglomerates focus on absolutely nothing but making money. This is why they are relatively expensive and don’t provide all that great customer service that you have come to know from smaller shops. These small shops can specialize in domestic or foreign vehicles and can move on to a demographic from there. Sure this means that they lose out on little bit of money from one side or the other depending upon which demographic they choose to service, however it becomes more of a passion project than it does a moneymaker at that point.

Proving your passion is another great way to keep yourself relevant as a smaller shop. People like to feel like their cars are in good hands and will go to excessive lengths to ensure that they can get their vehicle in the right place. Now, sometimes it’s extremely hard to do considering that insurance companies are the name of the game right now in the automotive industry and pretty much dictate where cars go to be repaired. However you can try and choose a place to have your car repaired and sometimes it works out quite well. Find that little mom-and-pop shop that focuses on your type of vehicle. The odds of you being satisfied by something like that is incredibly high compared to what you might find at a standard conglomerate whose only goal is to make money off of your vehicle. After all, it’s the big conglomerates who tend to give in to the demands of the insurance companies far easier than those of the smaller shop. If there had to be any and all be all of looking at a mom-and-pop shop compared to a big conglomerates, it would be the insurance companies and how they work around there. It’s best if you just avoid them and give yourself a fighting chance to actually walk out of an unfortunate accident without breaking your wallet and half.

So far we have passion and specialization. These two are very important, however I find that the last one here on this list is the most important of all. That is connection. Connection represents more than just ensuring that your company is known by a lot of people. Connection means talking to each individual person as though they actually mean something and are not just a number to be pushed out of the way. So often in today’s society we end up pushed to the wayside as people and end up more is digits on a code. Now, I’m a person who loves technology, but I do know that the relevance that comes along with being spoken to as an individual and not necessarily as simply a person who is there to provide them with money is a great way to have people come back. They might not even be for a damaged vehicle. Repairing some vehicle that they’ve had in their backyard for ages could be just the thing that they want to have done and your company could be the one they trust to do it. The only way to find out is to make that connection and understand that people like to be talk to like people. I think that’s really what it comes down to.

So between connection, passion, and specialization, these three will bring your company to the forefront of businesses in your area. If you are able to accomplish these three goals then it’s essentially guaranteed people will want to keep coming back should something need to be fixed. You can keep yourself ahead of the conglomerates by doing this because they can’t possibly keep up with you. That’s kind of fun to hear is it not? Conglomerates have a tough time keeping up with the mom-and-pop shop. Now that is how it should be.